GOVT NOW KILLING ITS PEOPLE

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What value does our government place on the life of an ordinary citizen when it allows our hospitals and clinics to run short of essential drugs? There is no guessing the answer to this because this has been going on for weeks, if not months.

There is also no guessing the answer to whether  or not any sick person should bother going to hospital today, because we wake up to threats of a go-slow strike action by nurses to force government to attend to grievances of their own.

One layer of our Florence Nightingales’ beef with the employer is the inability to effectively carry out their work due to the shortage of drugs in hospitals and clinics nationwide.
Where then is the people’s budget that the Finance Minister viciously defended, if the people are now the ones suffering to death, literally?

First it was the life of government service providers hanging by a thread due to a cash-flow crisis. Sadly, on the list of unpaid service providers were medical suppliers and now the ordinary citizen has no access to medication.

The Health Ministry is too scared to say just how much is being owed and seems helpless with regards to coming up with a solution that ensures people go to the hospital today to find the drugs they need to stay alive.

And it is not just the drugs that we expect to find, but the nurses who are not on a go-slow strike because they are part of an essential service. They cannot bargain with people’s lives. The cruelest thing they could ever do is join government’s heartless action of killing innocent people.

Likewise, we call upon government to stop gambling with the health of a nation by not paying those who supply essential medication.
The Health Minister Sibongile Simelane had better start spending cold sleepless nights at the door of the office to the Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini from today, until money is released to buy the drugs needed to treat people.

Government’s skewed priorities should not result in a mass grave of Swazi citizens who have duly paid their taxes because the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) is leaving no cent unchecked - ruthlessly so in some cases might we add.

The timing of it all could not have been more ironic. We are certain that the prime minister, who turns 75 today and is currently away receiving medical treatment abroad, would have loved a happier birthday than to be accorded the best medical treatment while his government allows those it should serve diligently, to die.

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